Due to a cruel obsession with torture, stress, and unnecessary complexity, Emily and Dan have decided to suffer through the bitter cold of North western China and the pain of cycling through southeast Asia before returning home and trying to rebuild a life in recession-plagued USA.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

HONG KONG - We Should Move Here

Every time we come here, we have a great time and think to ourselves “why don’t we live here?” It has the best of everything. The perfect balance between Western and Asian cultures and food, nature and city, fashion, music, and so on.

Luckily, Dan’s old employers, Asia Pacific Adventure, let us stay in their staff house on LammaIsland. Lamma is like a bohemian getaway from the city where you can find everything from beaches to bars, mountains to mochaccinos, seashell necklaces to seafood – lots of seafood. It was the perfect base for us while we waited out the arrival of our bikes and gear from Shanghai. Here are some pictures of the places we visited and things we ate while here:

Staying at the house with us is Alex Maier, a Frenchman, a Jew, an old China hand, and chef extraordinaire. Alex has been the head chef of top hotels across China, but in 2001 he decided to move to the mountains and ancient cobbled streets of Lijiang, Yunnan. There he was known as the man to go to for pizza for the longest time. Most recently he has partnered with some other Frenchies to open the Rhizome Lijiang Arts Center which provides food, accommodation and studio space for traveling artists and other wanderers. During our stay we had the pleasure of tasting his cooking (which he does by intuition with whatever we have in the house) and learning lots about traveling long distances by bike (such as “ ‘ammer some ‘ole in your shoe” to let our feet breath)

Right now he is in the kitchen cooking up a curry and talking to himself about the different sauces in the cupboard, which one is better than the other. Apparently there is something wrong with the fish sauce. He doesn’t know what exactly, but it’s definitely not right.

Good to Know:While enjoying the spoils of HK, we had a bit of an accident. After a delicious home-cooked meal, 1 litre bottle of cheap whiskey and a dart game, we slowly made our way home. Drunky #1 immediately went to snack in the bunk bed, while the other decided to check a few emails. Not 30 seconds later, a large CRASH was heard, followed by, “Oh Shit.” Drunky #2 had somehow slam-dunked the computer on the ground, shattering the screen. Drunky #1 burst out laughing, but knew they should be a bit upset, so as a compromise kept repeating between giggles, “Oooh! I’ma tell my mama!”

Moral of the story: It actually is possible to replace a laptop screen, though not really all that cheap.

The bikes and gear have finally arrived at the Specialized Store in Dongguan China and we will go tomorrow (Thursday, January 27) to pick up the stuff and set out. We will update everyone in a few days once we are on our way.